Annotation: This report ranks states on more than 40 indicators of health system performance in five broad areas: health care access, quality, avoidable hospital use and costs, health outcomes, and health care equity. It also compares and evaluates trends across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Annotation: This brief identifies evidence-informed strategies that state Title V programs may consider implementing to increase the percentage of very low birth weight (<1500 gm) infants born in hospitals with a level III or higher neonatal intensive care unit. Contents include information about the methods and results of the evidence review, key findings, and implications. The full review is also available. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Annotation: This brief defines toxic stress from a community perspective and presents a framework for a community approach to addressing toxic stress, nested within the broader context of working toward healthy development and well-being. The brief also provides examples of how communities are taking action and recommendations for next steps to promote and further develop comprehensive approaches to toxic stress in communities across the country. Strategies for parents and caregivers; service providers; and multisystem, community partners and policymakers are included.

Annotation: This brief describes the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements for the inclusion of a school quality or student success indicator (referred to as the "5th indicator), including requirements to ensure that the indicator contributes to a state's system of school and district accountability. Highlights include key factors to consider when identifying, evaluating, and implementing a school quality or student success indicator for inclusion in a state's accountability system. Examples of school quality and student success indicators and research supporting those indicators are included.

Annotation: This article describes a project to increase the use of oral health care for pregnant women and infants in Wisconsin by integrating oral health care into the state’s health-care-delivery system. The article also presents findings from a survey of dentists about their current practice, knowledge, and interest in continuing education related to oral health care during pregnancy. Topics include dentists’ opinions about the barriers that pregnant women face and strategies to increase their use of oral health services. Information about how findings will be implemented is included. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Annotation: These resources are designed to help working group leaders contribute to a successful collective impact initiative. Contents include modules on how to build membership, plan for and run an effective meeting, build a culture of collaboration, put systems thinking into practice, engage community members, and be data-driven and learn along the way. Additional contents include sample working group strategies, meeting planning steps for co-chairs, meeting agenda templates, and a meeting follow-up email template.

Annotation: This report presents recommendations for transforming the behavioral health system in Oregon into a coordinated-care model that will integrate behavioral health care with physical care and oral health care. Topics include governance and finance, standards of care and competencies, work force, and information exchange and coordination of care.

Annotation: This paper provides information about initiating interprofessional networks that integrate and coordinate person-centered oral health care in rural communities. Topics include oral health as a national issue with rural implications, interprofessional practice and the oral-systemic health connection, creating networks and a learning collaborative, state offices of rural health and medical-oral expanded care initiation, and challenges and opportunities for innovation. Examples from Colorado, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina are included.

Annotation: This paper proposes community schools as a strategy for school improvement. Topics include what a community school looks like at the school level, how community schools support provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act, and how states can support community schools. Information about community school and initiative exemplars, resources, and partners are included.

Annotation: This report describes early childhood trauma and its effects, offers promising strategies for early care and education (ECE) programs and systems to help young children who have experienced trauma, and presents recommendations for state policymakers and other stakeholders looking to support trauma-informed ECE for this group.

Annotation: This document outlines findings from research on how Americans think about oral health and explains these findings’ implications for communication, outreach, and advocacy. Topics include how the public thinks about oral health and related issues, implications of attitudes toward oral health for advancing an informed public conversation, and communications tools and techniques.

Annotation: This report provides a snapshot of Title V Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) programs across the United States. Contents include background and history of CYSHCN programs, recent changes affecting CYSHCN programs, and methods and results from an electronic survey of Title V CYSHCN directors to assess key characteristics of each state's CYSHCN program. Topics include program structure and strengths, roles in systems of care, CYSHCN program partnerships, financing of care for CYSHCN populations and emerging issues for CYSHCN programs.

Annotation: This toolkit is a collection of resources that aims to assist states as they integrate Title V data into Early Childhood Integrated Data Systems (ECIDS). The toolkit consists of tip sheets, data integration use cases, and state examples.

Annotation: This e-book highlights lessons learned from the initial implementation of a federal initiative to support states in their efforts to align, coordinate, and improve the quality of existing early learning and development programs across multiple funding streams that support children from birth through age five. Contents include experience, trends, and reflections captured through interviews with state leaders. Topics include state systems building through governance, local systems building through coalitions, early learning-health connections, trends and innovations in early childhood education work force development, reform in vision and practice, improving systems of learning through the use of child standards and assessments, integrated data strategies, and the impact of the initiative on state Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS).

Annotation: This brief explains the implications of a simulation model for preventing dental caries in early childhood in New York and discusses opportunities to implement policies to align the oral-health-care-delivery system with established science. The brief describes a risk-based approach to oral health care and a number of other approaches for crafting dental benefits in a cost-effective manner. Contents include program-specific recommendations, systems-change opportunities, and Medicaid reform options.

Annotation: This report reviews health services research findings on community health workers (CHWs) and considers key challenges for CHWs to improve health care delivery, including oral health care delivery. Topics include major roles for CHWs in the health care system, a national profile of CHWs, evidence on the clinical impact of CHWs, the policy impact potential for CHW interventions, opportunities for reimbursement through Medicaid, and state and health care innovation models.

Annotation: This document for state health departments provides guidance on developing a state health assessment. Contents include four modules on identifying and engaging system stakeholders; collecting and analyzing health status data; collecting and analyzing stakeholder and community input data; and summarizing, presenting, and communicating findings. Each module provides information about relevant Public Health Accreditation Board standards, measures, and guidance; ideas for structuring the process and conducting assessment activities; specific examples and lessons learned from states; sample tools and links to additional resources; and a summary of key products, deliverables, or processes resulting from the module activities.

Annotation: This document for chief state school officers focuses on ways to prioritize and strengthen early learning opportunities and outcomes as an essential mechanism for closing the achievement gap and strengthening student outcomes through college and career. Contents include five action steps that chiefs can use to leverage the value of early childhood education for their state's public education system. Topics include engaging families and communities in early learning; connecting early childhood programs and elementary schools; accelerating improvement and innovation in early childhood programs; building a high performing early childhood work force; and increasing investment to provide quality, voluntary early childhood education for all children. Examples of state leadership are included.

Annotation: This document outlines a strategic plan to identify critical human nutrition research gaps and foster a coordinated approach to address knowledge gaps, accelerate innovations, and strengthen the capacity of the interdisciplinary workforce required to bring the innovations to fruition. Topics include how to better understand and define eating patterns to improve and sustain health, what can be done to help people choose healthy eating patterns, and how to develop and engage innovative methods and systems to accelerate discoveries in human nutrition.

Maternal and Child Health Library

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U02MC31613, MCH Advanced Education Policy, $3.5 M. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.